This past year was window into a theatre of the absurd. Unjust wars; the world's economy under the whims of an American President; AI running unchecked; ad nauseam. Reality is a cross to heavy to bear so we cast our attention, at least, for a brief while, onto the enticing media wilderness.
We consumed a good deal of what was broadcast to us. From the resplendent to the terrible; from books to films to music, bellies were filled and with a well-fed soul, its enough to survive 2025.
Here are what we've subsisted on for the past year.
In a society that heavily relies on pharmaceuticals (like all other industries, proven susceptible to corruption) for healing, it's nice to be reminded that nature has provided means for organic recovery.
In a time when everyone thinks they're right, it's nice to be humbled that our senses and discernment are fallible.
If you work in any creative industry, prepare to be wildly entertained while feeling so seen.
It's so rare to find something clean and engaging to watch with the family these days.
Vince Gilligan did it again. And arguably better.
You can feel your heart rate slow listening to this.
A feel good tune for any time of the day.
Chilla's Art and Fears to Fathom vibe if you're into that kind of video game.
Ignore the fact that the book wasn’t published in 2025 and focus on how Kawakami manages to compress the inflammatory emotions of want and the numbing ripples of melancholy into 224 delicate pages.
TL;DR: a spiritless copywriter in her mid-thirties meets an older man who prompts her to break out of stagnation.
As a longtime enjoyer of hip-hop capable of devouring everything from A Tribe Called Quest to Kid Cudi, Ms Lauryn Hill to Ice Spice, I could never quite warm up to UK rap (or grime music). Maybe it was the thick Scouse accents that turned me off (it was). Then came EsDeeKid strutting in with his balaclava and LV Sandals amid the Timothée Chalamet allegations, and everything flipped. I am officially a believer.
Not for Radio is the solo project of Maria from The Marías, which launched this year, and it’s a doozy. Melt is a painfully intimate album that gently courts your full attention, and it’s very important that you comply. Each track quite literally melts into the next to form a soft stream of consciousness that translates yearning and ache into tiny tears in your gut.
I’ll just let Maria herself do the explaining. Big Marías enjoyer here, if you couldn't already tell.
“I just remember going home, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is the best song we’ve ever written.’” – Maria Zardoya
Essex Honey is the antidote to Devonté Hynes’ push and pull with grief, memory, and identity growing up in Essex. Gentle synths, piano, and violin work intertwine with intricate vocals to create an airy, resonant album with serious replay value.
I grew up on Telltale’s The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us playthroughs, so decision-based story games have always stuck with me. After years of mediocrity from the genre, Dispatch seems to be the antidote that finally revitalises it. Back when the episodes were dropping periodically, it actually got me counting down to each new episode.
Herein lies the sole reason I have a Twitch account. I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit watching this group of childhood friends from Waco, Texas—playing video games, debating anime, acting out skits, and filming short films—more than any other media in recent memory. It’s hard to explain how I can sit through a five-hour stream of them playing Golf with your Friends and still find it hilariously entertaining, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the power of friendship, or something like that.
Instagram exists for one thing and one thing only: cat videos. Especially so if said cat is a chonky brown tabby that falls over on its side once every 5 steps. It feels vulnerable exposing my muse like this, but good things are meant to be shared.
Besides cat videos, Instagram is also good for bite-sized content that encourages critical thinking. Why does nothing we want ever feel enough? Why do we ruin good things in our life? Philosophy_fix poses existential questions and grounds them with answers backed by philosophical frameworks from Camus to Kafka, Plath to Jung.
But then again, blissful is an adjective often placed beside ignorance for a reason, so venture at your own risk.
It was a year for films but the horror genre certainly flourished from it. Three, however, stood out: two were sophomore outings (Zach Cregger's Weapons and Danny and Michael Philippou's Bring Her Back) and one was a genre a director hasn't tackled before (Ryan Coogler's Sinners).
Maybe there's something to comedy and horror being two sides of the same coin. Sharing the yen to elicit visceral physical reactions, Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger manage to bring their own unique comedic sensibilities to the once-fledging horror genre. For the latter, Cregger, once more, creates a film that isn't what it seems on first viewing.
While its often categorised as a "horror", I'd classify Sinners as a social thriller with horror elements. Instead of the scares, watch it for Ryan Coogler's homage to Delta Blues and being an Other in America.
The Philippou Brothers did it again with a deft horror film that will cause you to squirm (see above clip) and feel your paternal heartstrings being tugged on, believe it or not. And it didn't hurt that the marketing team behind the film really pulled out all the stops for this: a blackmarket website selling cursed objects (some that tied into the in-universe of Philippous' two films).
The end of the year gave us this gem by Mac DeMarco. Guitar is a beguiling album that is pared down to DeMarco's simple acoustics and bare singing. Autotune be damned. This is DeMarco being his realest and we're blessed for that.
It's another Tyler, the Creator album. What else do you need to know?
Imagine having been betrayed by your closest friend and struggling with putting out a follow-up to the lauded last album, No Thank You. Write what you know, they say. Lotus (named after the flower that's able to flourish in muddy waters), is Little Simz's emotional complexity and artistic growth.
I missed I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. This will do.
It's a smorgasbord of acting greats—Matthew Macfayden, Michael Shannon, Nick Offerman, Shea Whigham, Bradley Whitford—set in the world based on the real-world assassination of President James Garfield by Charles Guiteau.
Taking the one-take conceit from Boiling Point, Adolescence is a marvel in camera work and acting at its finest. But the topic of the pervasiveness of toxic masculinity among young men is an eye-opener as well.
Game Changer was always a high-concept idea that had longevity on the small screen. It's a game show where the rules are different in each episode and the players won't know the mechanics until they play it (some won't even know how the game operates until the end). For its seventh season, a secret episode turns the table on the host, Sam Reich, who conceptualises each episode's conceit by having him be a player in an escape room-themed chapter.
Taskmaster's premise is simple: five comedians compete in a myriad of tasks set by the taskmaster (Greg Davies) and overseen by his assistant (Alex Horne, who created the show). For its 19th series, the show brought in American comedian, Jason Mantzoukas. (He's not the first American to appear on the show though, that honour goes to UK-based Yank, Desiree Burch, in series 12).
Bringing his own American exceptionalism and chaos, Mantzoukas made series 19, one of the best season in Taskmaster's history. Don't take our word for it, you can view the entire season (and everything else) on YouTube now.
There's nothing like learning about the boundless possibilities of the human body. From prosthetics to
For some reason, I read two exceptional tomes this year. King Sorrow is one of those. Spanning 896 pages, King Sorrow follows six teenagers, who made a bad deal with an even worse dragon. It's a tour-de-force of a read, one that will keep you fastidiously invested in the tale. Hopefully, Joe Hill's next work won't take nine years to be completed.
Someone described the plot of The Devils as "the Suicide Squad mixed with medieval monsters" and I couldn't agree more with that. Set in an alternative world where a ragtag group of misfits (a werewolf, a vampire, an undead knight, an elf, a necromancer, a rogue and a priest) have to protect the new pope (a female one, at that) to Troy.
